Intel's barebones mini PCs range is growing with two new low-end boxes, based on Intel's low-end 14nm Braswell chips.

The more expensive NUCs sport Broadwell CPUs. Ars Technica spotted the two NUCs which Intel appears to have quietly snuck out under cover of darkness each with catchy titles.

The NUC5CPYH has a 1.6GHz (2.16GHz Turbo) dual-core Celeron N3050. It will be out this month. Then there is the NUC5PPYH which uses a 1.6GHz (2.4GHz Turbo) quad-core Pentium N3700 which will hit the shops in July.

Braswell uses the same "Airmont" CPU cores and s cut-down Broadwell GPU but can run at a higher TDP than Atoms which lets them run at higher speeds for longer. With their SATA technology they are designed for low-end desktops.

Both NUCs have the same port layout, and the same system board. They have two USB 3.0 ports on the front and two on the back and a headphone jack.

Because these would make good media machines there is an HDMI 1.4a port which can appears to be able to output 4K video at 24Hz. This is next to the VGA port in case you want to run a low powered desktop machine.

There is an SD card slot, a single gigabit Ethernet port, and an Intel 3165 Wi-Fi adapter that supports 433Mbps 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0.

Both support a single DDR3L SODIMM and a 2.5-inch SATA III HDD or SSD, but no mSATA or M.2 SSD.

Unlike some of the Intel NUCs these two have fans.

The Celeron version is listed on Amazon for $129, though it currently has a two- to four-week shipping window.

Zotac has unveiled the new R Series in its well known ZBox Mini PC lineup which will feature two models, The ZBox RI323 and the Zbox RI531, both base on Intel's CPUs.

What is quite interesting is that the new ZBox R Series Mini Series PCs offer RAID support in a small Mini PC package. Both new R Series ZBox models are quite similar as both are packed in the same chassis, feature support for up to 16GB of DDR3-1600 memory in two SO-DIMM slots, have two 2.5-inch SATA slots, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, four USB 3.0 ports, COM port and support for RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD.

The more interesting, ZBox RI531, is based on Intel's Broadwell Core i3-5010U dual-core CPU with Hyper-Threading. This CPU is clocked at 2.1GHz, comes with 3MB of L3 cache and packs Intel HD Graphics 5500. The ZBox RI531 will also offer an additional mSATA SSD slot and will be available as a Plus version, with 4GB of DDR3 memory and 64GB mSATA SSD.

The ZBox RI323 is not bad either but will not be available as a Plus version but only as a barebone and lacks the aforementioned mSATA SSD slot. It is based on a well known 22nm Intel Haswell dual-core Celeron 2961Y CPU clocked at 1.1GHz.

According to Zotac, both should be available quite soon with a price set at €199 for the ZBox RI323 and €349 and €459 for Zbox RI531 in barebone and Plus versions, respectively.

It looks like Intel will be ready with Celeron and Pentium versions of Skylake before the end of the year.

According its current schedule, Intel plans a much faster introduction of the new architecture codenamed Skylake than originally anticipated. The fastest Pentium based on Broadwell was introduced in Q1 2015, in the form of the Pentium Processor 3805U that works at 1.9GHz, has two cores and two threads, 2MB cache and a 15W TDP.

The fastest Celeron based on the Broadwell architecture is the Celeron 3755U, with two cores and two threads, 1.7GHz clock and 15W TDP. It also supports configurable TDP that can limit the TDP at the lower clock speeds.

Intel plans to replace two Celeron SKUs with two Skylake successors and the same destiny awaits the Broadwell Pentium processor. From what we saw, Intel plans to launch almost the whole range of Skylake processors in Q4 2015, including Celeron, Pentium, Core M, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 products.

We are sure that all SKUs from Celeron to Core i7 will run Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 just fine, as it is hard to slow down a modern processor with everyday tasks such as browsing, facebooking and instant messaging / skyping.

There will still be some processors to launch in early 2016, as the transition from one to another architecture across the entire product range usually takes a few quarters. If Intel manages to keep its tick-tock schedule, there is a good chance we will see Intel 10nm processors, codenamed Cannonlake, in late 2016, roughly 18 months from now.

Shuttle made a name for itself making small form-factor computers and the company has now released a Broadwell 14nm based successor to its DS47 and DS437 models.

The new Broadwell fifth-generation Core PC called DS57U and it also fits in the one-litre PC class. Best of all, it features a Broadwell Celeron 3205U, a dual-core with two threads clocked at 1.5GHz. It comes with a 15W TDP configurable down to 10W, which is enough for this one litre PC to remain fanless. We can imagine that it can get rather hot, but with its business-like chassis and good cooling system, it could keep going for a long time, as there are no moving parts.

Industry users love fanless PCs, as one of the most common things that break are fans, so fanless PCs promise to save money in the long run. The DS57U will not suck a lot of dust into the system and can potentially last longer, with fewer man-hours for maintenance.

The barebone has room for one 2.5-inch drive, two SO-DIMM memory modules up to 16GB DDR3L, as well as one full size Mini PCI express port for mSATA module. The second Mini-PCI Express slot half size comes already fitted with a WLAN module.

The Shuttle DS57U is the company's first barebone with two Intel Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. It measures 20 x 3.95 x 16.5 cm and comes with 2x USB 3.0, 1x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI as well as audio ports.

The front panel has a card reader, four USB 2.0 and two RS-232 ports, something many business users still have to use.

Since the barebone comes with a supplied VESA mount, it can be set upright or mounted on suitable surfaces or monitors. The recommended retail price for the Shuttle Barebone DS57U is €192.00 (ex VAT) and it should be available by specialist retailer right now. We found them available in DACH market starting at €198.90 ready to ship right now.

Intel is pushing Broadwell-U based notebooks in Q1 2015, and we have seen that there will be a Broadwell-based Chromebook platform in all market segments.

It starts with Celeron Broadwell-U, Pentium Broadwell-U as well as 5th Generation Core i3, i5 and even i7 parts based on Broadwell-U.

This is happening right now, and Intel plans to update all these Chromebooks in Q4 with the new Skylake processors. The top one is based on a Skylake-U Core i5 or Core i7 processor, no surprises there. Intel plans to replace Broadwell-U Core i3 with a Skylake-U Core i3, and obviously the rest of the line gets the same treatment.

The Broadwell-U based Pentium will get a Skylake-based Pentium replacement, and there will be a Celeron based Skylake, all planned for Q4 2015. Intel will debut with Chromebook based on Core M silicon, and as far as we know this will be the first Core M Chromebook. We expect it to be fast and efficient, but we are curious about pricing, as Core M parts don't tend to come cheap.

These are Intel's current plans and they can be changed as always. Intel has Skylake silicon back and it even benchmarked it under Windows 8.1, showing some promising numbers.

Most Chromebooks in the market sit between $200 and $300 USD and are based on either Celerons or Pentiums and rarely on Core i3. So maybe Core i5 and Core i7 based machines will appear sometime in the future.

As we have said before the desktop version is imaginatively called Braswell-D. Intel did a good job with Bay trail line of Atom processors and even dared to brand them as Celeron and Pentium. Our sources claim that it is selling well. These processors are aiming small form factor, ultra small form factor and all-in-one designs as well as small desktops for some emerging countries.

We have discovered that the eighth generation graphics that comes in Braswell SoC will get triple display support, DirectX 11 support and will be faster in games. No-one is sharing any scores yet but Intel tends to improve the speed with the next generation launch.

Braswell 14nm SoC

The Braswell SoC is been prepped for a Q1 2015 launch and supports Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Android, Chrome as well as Linux. The introduction of a new 14 nm Atom SoC codenamed Braswell might help Intel's plans to sell 40 million tablets in 2014 and make its position stronger in the next year. Intel's architecture supports 64 bit architecture which is the buzz word in 2014 and it can easily an launch Android 64 version as well as a Windows version.

We should see an Android 64 bit long before the Q1 2015 launch and shipping date of the Braswell. Intel has even demonstrated 64 bit Android kernel made in house at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2014. We saw the demos working.

We still need an official Android 4.5 (5.0) to see the real 64 bit benefits of an Android operating system that can address more than 4 GB.

Intel launched its Bay Trail-M ultra low voltage processors for netbooks and mobile devices over the weekend. According to CPU World the new mobile CPUs, branded this time as Celeron and Pentium, can manage twice the CPU performance, and up to three times faster graphics.

They do all that while using the same amount of juice as their "Cedar Trail" predecessors. Most chips have higher clock speeds than N2805, N2810 and N2910 SKUs and come with Burst Performance technology. They can operate at a higher maximum operating temperature which makes them easier to cool. Finally, in addition to 4 N28xx/N29xx Celerons Intel also released Pentium N2920.

Then there are new dual-core Bay Trail-M microprocessors like the Celeron N2806, N2815 and N2820 which can operate at frequencies from 1.6 GHz to 2.13 GHz, when going downhill had the wind is behind them. They also have the maximum burst speed ranging from 2 GHz to 2.39 GHz. The processors come with 1 MB L2 cache, Ivy Bridge graphics clocked at 311 MHz and up to 756 MHz, and support for DDR3L-1066 memory. The N2806 has 4.5 Watt TDP while the N2815 and N2820 have 7.5 Watt TDP. All of the Celeron N28xx processors are priced at $132.

Two new quad-core microprocessors are Celeron N2920 and Pentium N3520. The CPUs have 2 MB L2 cache, and run at 1.86 GHz and 2.17 GHz respectively, with burst frequencies reaching 2 GHz and 2.42 GHz. Both parts integrate Ivy Bridge graphics, that can be clocked as high as 854 MHz. The Celeron can deal with DDR3L-1066 memory, and the Pentium supports 1333 MHz memory data rate. They fit into 7.5 Watt power envelope. The official prices of Celeron N2920 and Pentium N3520 are $132 and $180.

Intel has started shipping new Pentium and Celeron processors based on the Haswell microarchitecture rather than the Bay Trail technology it said it was going to use in June.

Haswell provides better performance, while previous Pentium and Celeron chips based on Core architecture have sold well. The Pentium and Celeron chips are stripped-down versions of fourth-generation Core processors, which are used in Ultrabooks and laptops that are more expensive.

Intel is providing a range of chips for laptops at different prices, and the Celeron chips are expected to be used in Chromebooks with Google’s Chrome OS. The company wants to launch Pentium and Celeron chips based on Bay Trail for low-cost desktops and laptops.

While the chips have 2MB of cache, they can’t use the same graphics capabilities as the Core processors because of slower and older Intel integrated graphics processors. The new chips lack multithreading and Turbo Boost but you would expect that.

There's been a steady flow of details regarding Acer's upcoming C720 Chromebook and according to the latest leak, this 11.6-inch Intel Celeron 2955U Haswell-equipped Chromebook might end up with an optional touchscreen as well.

While the Intel Celeron 2955U and support for up to 4GB of RAM should birng significantly better performance and more importantly longer battery life when compared to earlier ChromeOS notebooks, the new Acer C720 might also end up with an optional touchscreen as well.

According to details, Acer'S Chromebook C720 will be offered with either 2GB or 4GB of RAM as well as 16GB or 32GB of storage. It will not be the only Chromebook to feature a touch panel considering that Google's own Chromebook Pixel was equipped with one, but Acer's version will definitely be a lot cheaper than the $1,299 Pixel.

According to the rest of the details, the 11.6-inch screen will feature 1366x768 resolution and the C720 will also come with HDMI, USB 3.0, card reader, 720p webcam and 802.11abgn WiFi as well as a 3950mAh battery that should keep it going for around 6 hours. Unfortunately, it appears that both the RAM and the battery are not user replaceable which will not bode well with the DIY crowd and more experienced users.

Bay Trail D is Intel's big quad-core hope for the desktop market and it looks like that this System on Chip part might lose its well-known Atom branding. From what we saw Intel plans to use the Celeron brand for entry BGA based SoC parts.

The list of processors includes the Celeron J1750 that is set to replace the D2550 Atom BGA Cedar View Atom as well as Celeron J1850 that should replace Celeron Sandy Bridge based 847 and 807 processors. The Pentium branded J2850 should be faster than Celeron 1007U based on the Ivy Bridge architecture and both of these Bay Trail D based BGA parts are coming in Q4 2013. At this time we expect to see the mobile version of Bay Trail as well.

Intel has high hopes for this new generation of Atom processors, which evidently won't have an Atom name at least, not in the desktop version, but will come with new and improved quad core as well as new DirectX 11 compatible graphics.